I use dirt in 10gal buckets autofeed drain to waste
How many grams per watt though?
If 2lbs per thats about 900grams per plant times 12 lights? Imstoned
Thats not right 900x15plants then divide by 12?
If I ran my plants further apart I wouldn’t have trouble getting 1.5-2gpw from my 1930’s consistently. If those 3 plants produce 4lbs I’m actually at 2.2gpw 
I’ll know when it’s dry I guess
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You have 12 lights and get 30lbs
30x 454
13620/12000 watts
1.135gpw
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Thanks for math help took my nightly gummies lol
So ur averaging better. Very nice . ur close to convincing me to make the upgrade. Im hoping by summer i can afford.
Ill ask opinion: alibaba 1930e light for 515perlight
10 lights 6grand to door step. Thoughts?
My numbers are going to run slightly better too because I’m doing deep water. But im sold permanently. LED’s are the future.
Not sure on buying knock offs on alibaba.
I’ve learned I like and trust the Samsung osram LED’s so anything housing them really comes down to customer service and over all value from that brand
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They claim same led as gavita. But this is where im confused the say the 1700 series is samsung and 1930 is a seoul 3something diode. Is this souel type correct as gavita or ur sure 1930 is samsung?
For some reason i keep going back to fox farm line up.
I think i like 10gal dirt cause i can stake it and not trelis.
Ur definately convincing me.
I appreciate your info your sharing.
Ur in washington as well i believe. I may have to smoke u out lol
Hydro seemed more work with all the cleaning. Iv done many types of hydro just seemed the once a week major clean was more work than a few min a day to handle dirt. More forgiving
We can always talk about the economics behind hydro. It’s all easy as hell once you know what you’re doing.
Yup Samsung & Osram diodes. There is clearly other good diodes out there, this is just what I’ve tested and what I feel comfortable purchasing and recommending now
Samsung & Osram
My bad
Im glad we talked diodes as u can see he was i forming gavita used the seoull 3535 and after digging u were correct. That info was buried lol. But clearly samsung and the other u mentioned.
Big investment and want best performance. My friend owns grow shop but stil 1100 per light ughh
Exactly why im researching for correct product
worth remembering that all though samsung and osram make some great diodes they also still produce a lot of older less efficient diodes. so just because a light is made up from osram and samsung diodes it doesnt neccesarily make it a great light.
seoul semi make some great diodes, their best bin 3030C is right up there with the best bin samsung lm301b/h.
nichia also make some of the best diodes out there (they invented the blue led) but they are rarely seen in growlights unless you go custom.
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You seem far more educated on the subject than I.
What are you using for LED’s currently?
Do you build custom lights?
i have built my own led lights for a few years now, tweaking things as i learn more.
currently i am using a couple of different lights, one is 5 channel made from samsung lm301b strips in 3000k and 5000k and 630nm, 660nm, 730nm monos all on seperate channels.
my newest light uses custom sol strips from cutter australia it is 6 channel and uses cree 2835 2700k, nichia optisolis 5000k, nichia 2000k, uva mix(365nm, 375nm, 395nm), a red blue mix infill channel with 400nm, 480nm,660nm. and the last channel 730nm far red for EOD.
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Can we see ur builds @stimpy? Feel like making a build tutorial?!!
Yes i was confused when comparing search for the seoul 3535 to samsung the 3030 kept coming up as compared to sunlight.
Any insights would be great. Wanna make sure i make good eduacated decision on the switch.
Im not that familar and trying to crash course the learning curve lol
The lights alinaba has for 515per are loaded with seoul 3535 and i dont have knowledge enough to know?
Any info appreciated
I did see cree rated number 1 and seoul rated number 6?
And as fickle asked do u do custom for peeps u sound knowledble in this area for sure
Alot of info togo thru to even begin to understand about diodes.
yer it can be daunting for sure so many different diodes its hard to know where to start.
like i said before its not enough to just know the manufacturer of the diode you need to know the exact model number and bin group before you can say whether or not a light is good value for money.
if a manufacture wont list the exact type of diode used in a light ask yourself why?, 99% of the time its because they are shit not because they have some secret sauce they dont want their competitors to know about. most companys that use/build a quality product will shout it from the rooftops.
if a manufacurer wants to keep the exact diodes used a secret then they need at least a 3rd party light test/report at a certified well respected lab and a spectrum graph so you can make an informed decision.
if we take the most commonly used diode today samsungs lm301b, samsung make this chip in 8 different colour temps from 2200k to 6500k. each different colour temp has a different efficiency.
on top of this they also make them in 3 different CRI 70, 80 and 90 (how accurate colours are rendered under a light source, sunlight is 100CRI). this also effects efficiency drastically.
then when they are making these chips slight variations in production process result in certain chips perfoming better than others, some may take slightly less voltage to light so they are more efficient, some maybe are more accurate at a certain CRI so they are all binned into groups. these again all effect efficiency.
if we compare the lowest efficiency bin of the 301b in 2200k @ 80 CRI to the highest efficiancy bin of the 301b in 5000k @ 80CRI the 5000k diode is around 50% more effecient. quite a difference and thats in the same family of diodes.
it also possible to have a growlight that uses an older generation diode like samsungs lm281 be more efficient than a light that uses the newer 301b, top bin 281’s will perfom as good or better than bottom bin 301b’s.
you can also make a really good light by leveraging diode count, using more less efficient diodes and running them softer (the more current you push through an led the less efficient they are).
the most efficient mid powers at the moment are i believe are samsungs lm301h EVO, these are exclusive to HLG in the usa for the time being. i know of one company in the uk using them and another in germany. you dont even see alibabas’s pretending to use them yet i as far as i have seen.
slightly behind the EVO in no particular order you have -
samsungs lm301b and h (these are the exact same diode).
crees j series 2835
seoul 3030C
nichia 757 3030
these are all great diodes with very similar performance, there are obviously more just to many to list.
up to now we have only talked about efficiency but what about spectrum, as you cant really have both.
todays growlight market is driven by efficiency at the cost of spectrum, its all about the ppfd per watt.
i dont really blame them efficiency is a real data point it can be tested quickly in a sphere and splashed on the marketing but spectrum isnt as easy to quantifiy (what is the best spectrum for growing cannabis?), but i think we have put enough distance between sodium and led efficiency to sacrifice a bit and start thinking about spectrum more.
dont be fooled by the “full spectrum led” nonsense manufacturers use, the diodes they use are selected for efficiency and cost not spectrum. thats why you see so many lights with 5000k whites and 660nm monos because they are the most efficient chips in their classes, you might have thought they use 660nm monos because we have a peak in the absorbtion spectrum of chlorophyll a at around 680nm and 660nm gets closest to it but if there was a 600nm mono that was more efficient than a 660 mono (their isnt) they would use that instead just to chase ppfd/watt.
real full/fuller spectrum diodes are more costly and less efficient due to the different pumps used to generate the light and the different phosphors used to convert the light into a broader spectrum. its easy to see why most light manufacturers wont use them.(they would have to charge more and be less efficient than their competitors).
then add to that most led manufacturers are just playing copy cat and dont really understand what they are doing(like using a 50/50 mix of 3000k and 6500k whites on the same channel and claiming you get the best of both like a veg spectrum and flower spectrum in one, nonsense) and a lot of them will outright lie about bins used ect and it really is a shit show lol.
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i started by watching all growmau5 old videos on youtube. ledgardener.com has some great build and driver tutorials on his website and on youtube that will give a good understanding of the basics of light design/circuit layout ect.
every time you add another channel to a light the amount of wiring more or less doubles so 5 and 6 channel lights are a lot of planning and work, so its not really that easy to make a tutorial that would cover everything correctly (at least not by me lol).
plus im thinking now that 5 and 6 channels is excessive and not needed i think with a bit of thought you could trim it down to 3.
but if you have any questions ill try to help as best as i can.
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